Francis de Sales

Today’s the feastday of St. Francis de Sales. Which of course you know because all the bloggers and writers are posting: Francis de Sales…my patron saint!

And really, yes. You should read St. Francis de Sales. But as you do, try to catch, not simply the ways that he confirms your expectations, but perhaps the way he challenges them.

Over the years – decades– I have been interested in the ways that we modern, post-Conciliar Catholics approach, use and well, perhaps appropriate great spiritual figures of the past. Well, you ask – how can we appropriate them if they are ours? If we share the same faith?

Well, that’s the conundrum, isn’t it?

For we can pick bits and pieces of Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Avila and Francis of Assisi, and we can collect their sayings that comfort us, we can tack attractively calligraphied sayings of theirs on our walls and make pillows and mugs out of them, but really –

-do we believe everything they believe?

Do we buy it?

So take St. Francis de Sales. We like him, we celebrate him because he’s the patron saint of writers and journalists – yay us – and because he wrote specifically for the laity – YAY us – but what happens when you actually read him? What happens when you try to reach beyond what comforts you?

For the truth is, most of us reading St. Francis de Sales today have been formed to believe that belief and conversion is essentially coming to believe that I am important, and I am loved by God, that I have a place in the universe. God loves me, God accepts me as I am.

The essence of the spiritual life seems to be: Rest in God’s love. You’re doing your best. Don’t worry. Be assured. Come as you are.

Well, when you read Francis de Sales – and, of course, other spiritual teachers of the past – you might pick up on some differences. Yes (as we’ll see) Francis de Sales advises against scrupulosity all the time, and both he and Jane de Chantal warn against excessive interiority and obsession with one’s spiritual state.

But this moderation is advised, not because they’re communicating that where ever you are, you’re fine and embrace your imperfections and mess. It’s a little different than that. It’s more: You’re a person, so yes you’re an imperfect mess. But God calls you to shed that mess and move towards perfection, and he gives you the tools and the grace to do so.

And further, if you recognize this, you have an obligation to do so. A duty.

So, although I am spiritually slothful myself, I have mused about this distinction for a long time and critiqued it in various ways, but last night, I was re-reading some Francis de Sales, a bit of clarity came to me, clarity about the world we’ve lived in since the Enlightenment. And with that clarity, came, I think, some understanding, and yes, acceptance.

Modern people – that means you and me – live in a world without God. Even if we are churchgoers and say we believe in God, we actually live in a world without God, because, we admit, everyone believes what they like and who are we to judge?

That’s a world without God.

Just admit it.

And living in a world without God means living in a world of anxiety. It means living on this world that exits – why? – not knowing why or how you came to be, not having any firm, objective sense of your own value or purpose, and certainly not knowing if your life is any more meaningful than the weed you just pulled from your garden.

So in that radically non-transcendent universe, what is “salvation?”

It is, simply, the revelation that yes, you matter. Yes, you are here, not accidentally, but because Someone wants you to be, which means that you are loved.

And so that is the core of the meaning of conversion in 2019: Accepting your own value.

I’ve spent a lot of time puzzling over that persistent theme and critiquing it, but this evening, after reading St. Francis de Sales for a while, and trying to figure out the distinctions between his message and most of what I hear today – I think that’s it, and I get it.

In an empty, meaningless universe, if we can start there – you matter –well, that’s where we have to start. It may strike me as solipsistic and goopy, but if you have been formed to believe that your life means whatever you want which means, in essence your life means nothing – to learn that: your life has happened because the Creator of the Universe wants it to…

….is, indeed, transformative.

But here we are, back with St. Francis de Sales. And he won’t let you rest there. He won’t let you rest with I’m okay, I’m loved, I’m here for a reason, I have amazing gifts and talents.

Nope.

Traditional Catholic spirituality – as expressed by today’s saint – is not about resting on our laurels and delighting in our unique gifts and talents. It’s about honestly looking at ourselves, seeing what trash we’ve allowed in, and sucking it up, embracing hard discipline, and moving forward.

We post-Vatican II babies were raised to look back at this type of spirituality and shudder: Scrupulosity! God loves you just as you are!

The basic difference has been:

Salvation = understanding and accepting that God made you and loves you as you are

Salvation = cooperating with the grace of God to restore the you he made.

And this is why St. Francis de Sales is so wonderful. He bridges this gap, he is realistic on every score, reminding us that we are not perfect and that we should be striving for perfection, but warning us against unrealistic expectations as well:

My God ! dear daughter, do not examine whetherwhat you do is little or much, good or ill, provided it isnot sin, and that in good faith you will to do it for God.As much as you can, do perfectly what you do, but whenit is done, think of it no more ; rather think of whatis to be done quite simply in the way of God, and donot torment your spirit. We must hate our faults,but with a tranquil and quiet hate, not with an angryand restless hate ; and so we must have patience whenwe see them, and draw from them a profit of a holy-abasement of ourselves. Without this, my child,your imperfections which you see subtly, trouble youby getting still more subtle, and by this means sustainthemselves, as there is nothing which more preservesour weeds than disquietude and eagerness in removingthem.

To be dissatisfied and fret about the world, when wemust of necessity be in it, is a great temptation. TheProvidence of God is wiser than we. We fancy thatby changing our ships, we shall get on better; yes, ifwe change ourselves. My God, I am sworn enemy ofthese useless, dangerous, and bad desires : for thoughwhat we desire is good, the desire is bad, because Goddoes not will us this sort of good, but another, inwhich he wants us to exercise ourselves. God wishesto speak to us in the thorns and the bush, as he did toMoses; and we want him to speak in the small wind,gentle and fresh, as he did to Elias. May his good-ness preserve you, my daughter ; but be constantcourageous, and rejoice that he gives you the will tobe all his. I am, in this goodness, very completelyyour, &c.

The effects of this liberty are a great suavity ofsoul, a great gentleness and condescension in all thatis not sin or danger of sin ; a temper sweetly pliable tothe acts of every virtue and charity.

For example : interrupt a soul which is attached tothe exercise of meditation ; you will see it leave withannoyance, worried and surprised. A soul which hastrue liberty will leave its exercise with an equal coun-tenance, and a heart gracious towards the importunateperson who has inconvenienced her. For it is all oneto her whether she serve God by meditating, or servehim by bearing with her neighbour : both are the willof God, but the bearing with her neighbour is necessaryat that time.

The occasions of this liberty are all the things whichhappen against our inclination ; for whoever is notattached to his inclinations, is not impatient when theyare contradicted.

This liberty has two opposite vices, instability andconstraint, or dissolution and slavery. Instability, ordissolution of spirit, is a certain excess of liberty, bywhich we change our exercises, our state of life, with-out proof or knowledge that such change is God’swill. On the smallest occasion practices, plan, ruleare changed; for every little occurrence we leave ourrule and laudable custom : and thus the heart is dissi-pated and ruined, and is like an orchard open on allsides, whose fruits are not for its owners, but for allpassers by.

Constraint or slavery is a certain want of liberty bywhich the soul is overwhelmed with either disgust oranger, when it cannot do what it has planned, thoughstill able to do better.

For example : I design to make my meditation everyday in the morning. If I have the spirit of insta-bility, or dissolution, on the least occasion in theworld I shall put it off till the evening for a dogwhich kept me from sleeping, for a letter I have towrite, of no urgency whatever. On the other hand,if I have the spirit of constraint or servitude, Ishall not leave my meditation at that hour, evenif a sick person have great need of my help at thetime, even if I have a dispatch which is of greatimportance, and which cannot well be put off, andso on.

One Response

Dear Amy, Thank you for your reflection on St Francis de Sales. He is an important saint to me personally as well. In a confusing, difficult era, his wisdom is so penetrating, timeless and wonderfully, fully human.

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Badlands, South Dakota August 2019

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A short story about mothers, daughters, and why we believe what we say we believe…or not.